Alabama

Eric Essix says he felt a huge responsibility when creating his new album, "Evolution." "You want to make a statement, be true to yourself as an artist, and say what you want to say without pandering to anyone," Essix explains. "I've said, over and over, that this is the most difficult record I've ever done." "Evolution" is available online at iTunes, Amazon.com and cdbaby.com. Locally, it can be found at Charlemagne Record Exchange and Barnes & Noble. (Essential Recordings photo)

These are important concepts for folks in Birmingham, especially in 2013. As the city looks back to 1963, acknowledging pivotal events in the civil rights movement, it’s natural to ask questions such as: Where have we been? How far have we come?

For Eric Essix, a guitarist and composer, the response had to come through music. His new album, “Evolution,” commemorates the past and expresses hope for the future. Through six original songs and a handful of carefully chosen covers, Essix, 53, pays tribute to his hometown, noting its flaws and strengths, tragedies and triumphs.

Plus: Essix will appear at a “Meet the Artist” show for area schoolchildren at 10 a.m. Sept. 20 in the Jemison Concert Hall.

“I don’t know how anybody can deny the tremendous amount of growth we’ve experienced during my lifetime,” Essix says. “I saw Birmingham in the ‘60s when I was a kid. I saw what it was like. When you walked downtown in Birmingham, there were places you couldn’t go. We always ate in the same places, and now I know why. There was a little place in the basement of Kress’ department store; I remember when it was OK for African American people to go there to eat. That was a big deal.”

With the “Evolution” album, a series of jazz instrumentals, Essix sought to express deep, complex emotions in abstract ways. The project would be challenging, he knew -- perhaps more difficult than anything he’d attempted during two decades as a musician -- but Essix had faith and resolution on his side.

“I felt a tremendous amount of pressure,” he admits. “I put myself in this position, because I love Birmingham and I wanted to get it right. The subject matter was so sensitive, and I wanted to handle it in the best possible way. I wanted to make a clear, comprehensive statement about the civil rights movement.”

As Essix discovered, simplicity would be the key to “Evolution.” Instead of writing for a grand symphony or an earnest choir, he employed just three instruments -- guitar, piano and drums -- to give the tunes precision and poignance.

"I thought: How can I write and arrange this music in a way that's just as powerful?" Essix says. "This was the perfect way to make a very personal, intimate statement, with just three people."

Essix also relied on his song titles -- “Foot Soldiers,” “For Four,” “Considering These Things,” “Path to Peace,” “Evolution,” “A Love that Forgives” -- to tell a story with historic impact.

“A Love That Forgives,” for example, is based on a theme often expressed in civil rights speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. Essix says it’s his favorite track on the record; listeners might even consider it his mission statement.

To complement the originals, Essix selected four songs with strong resonance for the civil rights era and arranged them to suit his trio: Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” John Coltrane’s “Alabama” and the gospel standard “This Little Light of Mine.”

“I picked cover songs that were so familiar that you get it,” Essix says. “I listened to a lot of music of that time, and I did research in the library, looking at pictures there and on the Internet.”

“Evolution,” more than a year in the making, was completed in time to accord with Birmingham’s 50 Years Forward campaign.

Essix will perform a concert this week at the Alys Stephens Center as part of 50 Years Forward, premiering songs from “Evolution” on Sept. 19 with 5 Men on a Stool and Tracy Hamlin. He’ll follow that with a “Meet the Artist” show for area schoolchildren on Sept. 20.

Essix took the first steps on this creative journey about 13 years ago, when he began to explore his Southern roots on albums such as “Southbound,” “Somewhere in Alabama,” “Abide With Me” and “Birmingham.” Tracks on these records -- including “Brother Bryan,” “Shuttlesworth Drive” and an early version of “For Four” -- reflected Essix’s growing interest in Alabama culture and history.

“I’ve been doing this whole Southern awareness thing since 2000,” he says. “I just felt like every record I had done prior to that time was not really honest. I was trying to be an artist who was something that I wasn’t. I really thought about who I am and where I’m from. I’m Southern, first and foremost ... The music here makes up who I am, gospel and blues and country music. I wanted to embrace that. I didn’t know it would be a 10-year, four or five album journey.”

"Evolution,” released in April on Essix’s Essential Recordings, has been charting well at SmoothJazz.com and getting airplay on Watercolors, the contemporary jazz channel on SiriusXM. The guitarist says it’s his fastest selling album on iTunes, as well.

His task won’t be complete, though, until the public realizes that “Evolution” is meant to prompt healing and promote understanding.

“I try to be an ambassador for Birmingham,” Essix says. “The ultimate goal for me is to change somebody’s perception about what Birmingham is. We aren’t just dogs and fire hoses. We aren’t the same city that we were 50 years ago.”